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Help:Editing Pages
The idea behind a wiki is that everyone has the ability to edit almost every page. Although learning the Universe formatting can take some extra time, the actual editing of a page is very simple. Quick Summary In a nutshell, the steps necessary to edit a page are: # Click on the edit tab visible at the top of the article. # Make your changes to the text that appears in the main edit box. # Review your changes using the Show preview button. # Repeat steps 2 and 3 until your edit is complete. # Type in an Edit summary in the field below the main edit box. # (Optional) Click the "This is a minor edit" checkbox (for edits that do not alter the substance of the page). # Click on the Save page button. The Editing Rundown If you see something that needs to be changed on any article in the universe, you should dive right in and hit the edit button and make your changes. If you are looking for ideas on what needs to be edited Our Helping out page has some great ideas. You do not need to get pre-approval for your ideas. If you make major changes to a page or make changes that you think might be misunderstood, you should explain those changes on the articles talk page. Feel free to add any pages that you edit to your personal Follow list.(click follow on any page you edit or are interested in.) Edit Box Any changes you make to the text shown in the edit box will become part of the article. When altering the page's contents, be sure your edit will improve the page and will comply to the site's style guidelines. You may wish to use our sandbox before starting to edit articles: you can make any changes you want to the sandbox page (within reason: obscenities and abusive language are never acceptable on any wiki page). If you are not familiar with the wiki formatting, you may want to review the Quick Editing Guide. Or you may want to copy the formatting used elsewhere on the page, or on another similar page. If in doubt about the formatting, just focus on writing the content you want to add; other editors who are more familiar with the wiki can later add any necessary formatting. Do all the changes you would like to do at the same time, as part of the same edit. Doing a separate edit for each typo you wish to fix, for example, just clogs up the page history and the Recent Changes page with a lot of redundant entries. Other editors will find it much easier to keep track of what you have done if all the edits are done at the same time. Of course, there will inevitably be times when you realize right after hitting the "Save page" button that you forgot to do something; by all means, edit the page again to take care of anything that was overlooked the first time. Also, if you are spending hours editing a page, you may wish to save your progress a few times along the way; this is completely acceptable. After Your Edit is Saved You may not get any immediate feedback on your edits. Although there are too many edits made to the site on a daily basis to be able to provide feedback on each one, we do appreciate all new contributions, whether they are fixing typos or adding a new section to a page. All edits made to the site are noticed and checked; a group of Patrollers and many other editors regularly review all of the Recent Changes made to the site. Most edits are looked over within an hour or so, but it may take a few days before other editors have time to do more detailed followup. Sometimes your edit will be accepted as is. However, it is more common, especially with new editors, for subsequent editors to revise the contribution; it is even possible for the edit to be undone completely. If you notice that your contribution has been revised, remember that this is part of the wiki process (as it says below every editing window "If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then don't submit it here."). Each article is a fully collaborative effort, and any editor can revise any part of the page. The most common revisions are to fix typos or add links to other wiki pages. Even if more substantial changes are made to your contribution, don't be alarmed. It takes most new editors some time to familiarize themselves with the site's style guide and article organization sytem. Even if your edit is completely undone, it does not mean that the edit was considered to be a "bad edit". One of the wiki's key principles is Assume Good Faith; only edits that were clearly made in bad faith are considered to be vandalism. However, many "good faith edits" are still not necessarily appropriate. Often new editors will add information that is already stated elsewhere in the article, or will add information that is specific to their game (but probably not true for most readers of the site). There are many reasons why information that you may have thought needed to be added to an article actually did not belong there. Other editors on the site will be happy to help you learn more about wiki editing; having your edits altered is just part of the learning process. If you would like to understand why your edit was changed there are several possible courses of action: *Click the "history" tab on the page that you edited. The history tab will provide you with a complete list of all the edits made to the page, including the editors' edit summaries. The editor(s) who altered your contribution should have given a brief explanation in the summary accompanying the edit. * If you don't understand the explanation, add a question on the article's talk page. Click "discussion" to pull up the talk page, and add a question (e.g., "I made an edit yesterday which was undone. I don't understand why the editor said the information was redundant"). The editor who made the change, or possibly other wiki editors, will respond with more complete feedback (although remember it may take a few days for other editors to have a chance to respond). * If after a few days your question hasn't been answered, you may also choose to ask the editor on his/her talk page (click the "Talk" link that appears next to the editor's name). The editor will automatically be notified about any questions posted on his/her talk page.